Burnie already main port in state: Kons

BURNIE'S mayor has dismissed a freight review recommendation to make the city Tasmania's main container port.

BURNIE'S mayor has dismissed a freight review recommendation to make the city Tasmania's main container port.

Alderman Steve Kons said market forces had already given the city this role.

"The market has decided," he said.

His comments come after Fairfax obtained recommendations made by the state's Freight Logistics Co-ordination Team, which has finished a year-long review of Tasmania's freight system.

The review was expected to provide answers to Tasmania's freight problems.

The $1.5million FLCT made 22 recommendations in its final report to the government, which is expected to be released this week.

Leaked recommendations include making Burnie the state's main container port, and privatising government freight assets.

Others include using another advisory group to draft a freight strategy by June 30, listening to the advice of advisory groups and maintaining another freight advisory group.

The FLCT recommended implementing a single planning zone for major freight corridors and infrastructure, upgrading the Midland Highway, and ensuring that Tasrail operated on a commercial basis.

It also suggested ensuring infrastructure planning processes were transparent, and having a formal agreement with the Port of Melbourne recognising Tasmania as a significant customer.

State Infrastructure Minister David O'Byrne said the government would consider the FLCT's report in forming a "long-term freight strategy".

"There is no silver bullet solution to the challenges Tasmania faces as an island state," he said.

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Rene Hidding said his party planned to "immediately fix the international freight issue" by helping restore a permanent international shipping service accessing Asia.

Alderman Kons dismissed some of the FLCT's recommendations.

"If you have one inquiry after another, nothing's going to change," he said.

He also criticised the Liberals' proposal to attract a single international shipper to Tasmania, describing it as "idiotic".

Tasmania did not have the shipping volumes to sustain an international shipper, he said.

"The state needed to accept this and work with that challenge," Alderman Kons said.

He said he believed infrastructure upgrades for ports and rail would help solve Tasmania's freight issues. nEDITORIAL, Page 20.